HIGHLAND MILLS — Amid a crowd of jubilant supporters, Woodbury Councilman James Skoufis reflected on the surprisingly large vote margin of victory over Goshen Mayor Kyle Roddey for the 99th state Assembly district.

“We outworked them”, said the 25-year-old assemblyman elect, who is the first Democrat to win the district in more than 30 years.

A town councilman since 2009, Skoufis, 25, has vowed to use his membership in a Democratic- controlled Assembly to improve jobs and lower taxes for his district, regardless of party loyalty.

“I'm a Democrat, yes, but I'm going to be a representative for everybody,” Skoufis said Tuesday, as the numbers began to show him with a strong lead.

An avowed centrist, Skoufis said he would fight especially hard for fiscal reform, including a change in the tax system based on income rather than property assessments.

A project manager for a security firm in Manhattan, the Assembly job would offer him a place in Albany, as well as an income that will exceed $80,000 a year.

The apparent victory came at the end of a bitter, as well as expensive election that saw some $400,000 spent on Skoufis' campaign, a point that his opponent seized on before the numbers started coming in Tuesday night.

The vast majority of that money came from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, the political arm of the Democrats in state government.

“If people say that it was a negative campaign, all you have to do is look at the sheer volume of the ads to know that,” Roddey said, claiming that he and Assemlbly Republicans could muster only about $130,000.

Skoufis said the amount spent on his campaign from the Democratic leadership would not sway his independence in Albany.